


Chapter 5 (Part 1)

by Adge



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adge/pseuds/Adge





	Chapter 5 (Part 1)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stand Still Stay Silent](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/514055) by Minna Sundberg. 

# Chapter 5 (part 1)

In Kastrup's field the cat-tank sleeps  
Through the long night till Lalli scout  
Returns at dawn with tested routes  
Into Hafnia’s haunted centre;  
Her rich book-hoards, refuge fence-lands  
And fast retreats. Few are the ways,  
Unsafe and strait; Sigrun wolf-maid  
Fell-handed thane, fore-chosen task-earl,  
Levers her rank to select her mind  
Of a strong target. Tuuri lore-skald  
Rates it middling, missing detail  
But a useful sye. Sigrun, eager   
To conquer trolls and to try Emil   
As a war-spear friend, works her comrades   
To prepare for reif; paying Lalli   
With sweet bakemeats, suading Mikkel   
A radio link to reconnect   
To the support base; pushing Tuuri,  
Tank steer-master, to start their way,  
The lore-handed maid to lead their car,  
Through weeping fields, over fences shent   
In the fey Danes' doomed defiance.  
There Mikkel the Dane remembrance owes  
And pays to the dead as the pals drive on  
Through waste suburbs to the central fence   
Uselessly barring the boulevards  
Of the high city. Hiding, drowsy,  
The cold-dulled trolls trouble them not  
As they skate the streets to the scouted holt  
Of their first pillage. They park in a nook,  
A defensible spot. Forced with a crowbar  
The cache-house unlocks; dislodged timbers,  
Time-crumbled ceils the sight-line bar  
To troll hauntings; but traversing a pace  
No sign reveals to Sigrun's eye   
Of trolls lurking or lair-dern beasts,   
So back to brief her book-raid lads,   
Lalli and Emil, to learn them well  
In the tasks ahead: to take to blades   
As first resort when a foe appears   
Lest gunshots warn and gather trolls;  
And to work through the task as one squadron -  
Teamfolk together. With Tuuri skald   
And leer Mikkel main-handed wight  
The car holding, to keep prepared   
As a safe retreat, the trio set off  
Through the shent hall. Shouting, Emil,  
Callow cleanser, proclaims a hoard –   
A full book-case – fetches his captain  
Sigrun doubt-faced and dour Lalli.  
But his crude touch crumbles the books  
To runnels of dust. With wrath-filled words  
Sigrun lashes him. Sorrowful Emil  
Denies his guilt; garbage and mush  
Is all that’s left! The dislusioned boy,  
Seeker unfettled, fears a quest-loss –   
But Sigrun’s truth, tried hoard-finder,  
Lifts his heart-mood, lures her search-troop  
With visions of wealth veiled in the deeps  
From decay and spoil. Cautiously onward  
The reivers unlatch a room of the dead,  
Of folk ravaged by the rash sickness,  
Forgotten wights, gathered to die  
Forspent, empty, their spirits drained,  
Forlost in horror, unhelped, unfed,   
On untended beds; terror diswarriors  
Unschooled Emil, but scant sympathy  
Sigrun appays; two palms slapping  
His mazzard with force master his fear,  
Harden his heart, horror replacing   
With sorrowful quiet. The search moves on  
Up a bye staircase, the steep access  
To a closed study, a secluded, cramped   
Book-lined office, bourn of a scholar  
Seeming untroubled by troll plundering,  
Joy to a reiver. They jemmy the door  
And clamber across the clutter of chairs -  
Ancient untried troll protection -  
To the table and books. Tenantless seeming   
But Lalli scout, alert, watchful   
Restlessly stares as roving Emil,  
Reiver unfettled, with feet crushes   
The self-killed bones of the book-gatherer,  
In Tuoni’s realm refuge taking  
In sickness days. Sigrun and Emil  
Joyful leader, jubilant cleanser,   
Cumber their arms with columns of books   
Randomly plucked to please Mikkel  
And Tuuri skald as a token brought –  
A first gleaning of a glorious hoard!  
To the scholar’s room the reivers return.


End file.
